Emperor Hongzhi's plan to travel around the Ming Dynasty received the support of two cabinet ministers, Liu Jin and Wang Shouren, and then went through a heated discussion in the morning, and finally got the approval of the ministers.
Next, Emperor Hongzhi also made a series of arrangements. First, he arranged for the crown prince Zhu Houzhao to supervise the country, the cabinet ministers Ji Zhong, Wang Shouren and the six ministers, and the five military governors to assist the prince in handling national affairs. The chief assistant of the cabinet Liu Jin followed Emperor Hongzhi Travel.
In terms of arrangements for his entourage, Emperor Hongzhi really kept everything simple. He only brought with him dozens of palace guards and dozens of imperial guards, Dongchang's secret gossip, a few young eunuchs to serve Emperor Hongzhi, and a few people who recorded the emperor's daily life. of civil servants.
In addition to bringing a small number of people, Emperor Hongzhi also ordered everyone to be in plain clothes and paid a private visit incognito. He planned to really take a good look around and feel the customs and customs of various places in the Ming Dynasty.
I don’t plan to notify the local governments anymore. I can just go wherever I want, and just play wherever I want.
Of course, this is also what Liu Jin hopes. If the emperor really wants to make a grand trip, it would be trivial to have thousands or tens of thousands of people.
Historically, Qin Shihuang traveled eastward to Mount Tai to enshrine Zen. He was escorted by a hundred thousand troops. The places he passed along the way were cleaned up early. It can be said that it seriously affected the production and life of the people wherever he went.
There is absolutely no need for Emperor Hongzhi. Now that the Ming Dynasty is prosperous and prosperous, the country is rich and the people are strong, there should be very few people who want to assassinate him as emperor.
Qin Shihuang was different at that time. He destroyed the six kingdoms. The old and young of the six kingdoms hated Qin Shihuang deeply. There were too many people who wanted to assassinate Qin Shihuang, so every time he traveled, he was mighty and huge. He was protected by a large army, and the places he passed along the way were cleared in advance. Even the dragon chariot he was riding in had been modified in many ways to strengthen the defense.
Therefore, even if Emperor Hongzhi only had a few dozen people with him, there would be no problem at all.
On the spacious cement road leading from Beijing to Tianjin, more than twenty Mercedes-Benz cars were speeding on the road, followed by a few large trucks in the distance. People who didn't know better must have thought it was a convoy of a certain trading company.
After all, cars are very expensive, especially Mercedes-Benz cars, which have always been out of the reach of ordinary people. Now, with more than 20 cars, only big business houses can afford them.
Emperor Hongzhi sat on one of the cars and looked at the scenery outside the window with interest.
This is the earliest cement highway in the Ming Dynasty and has been built for nearly 20 years.
If we put it in future generations, the 20-year-old cement road would have been rotten long ago. The scumbag construction of later generations, let alone 20 years, would make the newly built roads become bumpy even with just one rain. In many cases, There is only a layer of cement skin on the surface, and the sand and soil underground are not compacted.
But here in the Ming Dynasty, project quality is often linked to life. Ever since Zhu Yuanzhang formulated strict project management methods and accountability systems, project quality has become quite strict.
Almost all information about the workers and engineers who built the road, the materials used, which factory produced it, etc. must be engraved on the road, and special monuments must be erected to record these things in detail.
Once there is a problem with this road, the government can use this information to hold the relevant responsible persons accountable. Zhu Yuanzhang, who hated shoddy projects very much, was very strict in this regard and would lose his head at every turn.
This cement road has been built for nearly 20 years, and its quality is still very good.
There are no potholes or damage on the road. The green belts in the middle and on both sides of the road have grown into towering trees over the years, providing a shady place for passers-by to rest.
Thanks to the rapid development of Ming Dynasty over the years, the cement roads have brought convenient transportation and a large number of tourists. There are rows of houses, various inns, teahouses, restaurants and the like on both sides of the road.
You can see it everywhere, and business is booming.
Because the flow of people on this road is very large.
There are not only fast-moving cars, horse-drawn carriages, bicycles, etc., but also a lot of pedestrians. This road that runs through the two most prosperous cities in Ming Dynasty has hundreds of thousands of passengers every day.
.
The continuous and huge flow of people has brought huge business to the small shops on both sides of the road. When you are tired, you need to sit down and have a rest, drink a cup of tea or something. When you are hungry, you need to eat something. When you are tired, sleepy, it is night.
I also need to stay in a hotel for one night or something.
This road supports thousands of people in the areas along its path.
This also allows more and more people to choose to build their houses on both sides of the road, which is closer to the road and makes transportation more convenient. At the same time, they can also do some small business or something.
"This tree has grown into a towering tree!"
"There are also clusters of houses and shops on both sides of the road."
"When I went to Tianjin, the trees on both sides were only a little tall, and there were very few villages visible on both sides of the road."
Emperor Hongzhi watched it with great interest. When he thought about it carefully, it seemed that he had not gone out for a walk or take a look for several years. The last time he went to Tianjin was when Hongzhi was more than ten years old.
"Your Majesty, as the saying goes, if you want to get rich, you must first build roads."
"This Beijing-Tianjin cement highway connects the two most prosperous cities of the Ming Dynasty, Beijing and Tianjin. There are countless people traveling through this road every day."
"The transportation is convenient and you can do some business. Naturally, it will attract a large number of people to settle down on both sides of the road."
Liu Jin, who was riding in the same car as Emperor Hongzhi, also smiled and replied.
"Yes, if you want to get rich, build roads first!"
"Look at the houses on both sides. They are all beautifully built. Think about it. In the past, the houses of the people of Ming Dynasty were still mud houses and shabby."
"Now it seems that the people of Ming Dynasty have really become rich."
Emperor Hongzhi nodded in deep agreement.
For a place, roads are the link that drives prosperity, and for a country, roads are the meridians that activate the economy, allowing goods to flow quickly and continuously between places.
Without the convenient transportation that has been vigorously built now, the prosperity of the Ming Dynasty would not have been possible.
In the past, when there was a famine in the north, it was not easy to transport food for disaster relief, but it is different now. Basically no one is growing food in Beizhili, but there is no shortage in Beizhili.
grain.
Because there are railways, highways, and automobile transportation, grain can be delivered to you from Liaodong in minutes.
Emperor Hongzhi knew the importance of transportation very well. Over the years, the Ming Dynasty was not free from famines.
In fact, due to the unique geography and climate of Daming, affected by the subtropical high pressure, the rainfall in Daming is basically floods in the south and drought in the north, or drought in the south and floods in the north. There are rarely good weather conditions.
Droughts, floods, and locust plagues occur almost every year, but now their impact on the Ming Dynasty has become weaker and weaker.
The Ming Dynasty carried out infrastructure construction in various places, the focus of which was river lifts, dams, reservoirs and the like that all dynasties paid attention to. The existence of these projects greatly reduced the impact of natural disasters.
Of course, the most important thing is that the traffic conditions in Ming Dynasty have improved now. If you have a drought in Henan, I can immediately bring you food from Liaodong, Hezhong, Xiyu, Shandong, South Zhili, Huguang and other places. The food will be provided to you by the whole family.
A few hundred kilograms will be enough for you to eat until next year.
I will send you a few hundred kilograms more of corn, sweet potatoes, potatoes, etc. These are very cheap, easy to grow, and have high yields, and no one wants them anymore.
No matter how severe a famine is, it cannot withstand such a large-scale disaster relief effort from the court. Even if the fields are so dry that there is no harvest, the common people can sit at home and complain leisurely for several months.
This was something that was unimaginable in the past, but this is the current situation of the Ming Dynasty. The impact of natural disasters on the Ming Dynasty has become smaller and smaller, and has even reached the point where it does not have much impact.
There are fewer and fewer farmers, a large number of people have migrated out, and a large number of the remaining people have entered factories and workshops to work. Factories and workshops are even less affected by natural disasters.
Therefore, Emperor Hongzhi always attached great importance to and supported infrastructure construction.
Even though it would cost hundreds of millions to build the railway to Sichuan, Emperor Hongzhi still had to build it, because once the Sichuan railway was completed, it would open up the lifeline of the southwest region, and the entire Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan regions would benefit.
Even dredging the Yangtze River, building ports and wharves, overhauling dams, and building Yangtze River bridges in the Yangtze River Basin will cost a huge amount of money.
Emperor Hongzhi still had to build it, because once the Yangtze River shipping was developed, Huguang, Jiangxi, and Jiangxi, which benefited from it, could take off. By then, an economy along the Yangtze River would be formed. When these places exerted their strength, the Ming Dynasty South could take off.
The role of infrastructure construction is very huge, especially for the Ming Dynasty where infrastructure construction has just begun. Wherever the roads go, the people along the way can become rich and develop.
Emperor Hongzhi sighed, but at the same time he still felt a little bit of success in his heart. His hard work over the years had finally yielded results and rewards.
Look at the houses along the way and look at the lives of the people in the Ming Dynasty. Compared with the past, there have been tremendous changes. The people in the Ming Dynasty are really rich now, especially the people in the Beijing and Tianjin areas. Just look at these houses.
